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Author Archive for Gail DeVos

After a rather introspective and reflective fourth volume, Chantler resumes the fast pace of the previous volumes in this fifth title in the Three Thieves series. Dessa’s leg has had a chance to heal, so she and her companions move…

This fourth volume in the Three Thieves series focuses on the backstory of the main villain of the piece, Captain Drake. Told alternatively in a palette of bright colours (the present) and black-and-white (flashbacks and memories), this volume explores the…

Breather, created by Graeme Base, the award-winning illustrator and author of numerous picture books, is vividly brought to life in the comic book format by writer Sean Patrick O’Reilly and illustrator Asta Gunn. Base’s science fiction tale reflects early Australian…

Susceptible‘s black and white illustrations, expressive use of shading, tiny cursive written speech bubbles, and the variety of the size and shapes of its panels all add up to a pensive expedition for the reader as they follow this young…

Take one part horrific historical events, one part irreverent humour, and one part expressive and striking illustrations; shake well; and get ready to devour (pardon the pun) this third offering in the series of Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales. Nathan Hale’s…

A story of horror, monsters, and the ravages of war is not often envisioned as an uplifting tale—but that is exactly what Niles, Santoro, and Wachter have provided for their readers in this triumphant reworking of the Jewish golem legend.…

In his principally wordless slender collected work, Jed Alexander’s artwork dances and flows across the pages, celebrating the whimsy and imagination of young children. The first of the eight vignettes and stories, “Ella and The Pirates,” takes the reader on…

The 18 entries in this anthology were originally written by Native American authors in the early 19th and 20th centuries, and they are adapted here by contemporary authors and illustrators with various tribal affiliations. The poems, stories, and folklore retellings vary in…

This highly illustrated instructional guidebook, a well organized and supportive sequel to Drawing Words, includes exercises, lesson plans, descriptions, digressions, and nods to their stated multiple audiences of artists, teachers, and students. In the preface, authors Jessica Abel and Matt…

Jimmy Gownley’s reflective look at his youth and his enthrallment with the comic book world, while personal and introspective, is honest and appealing. It offers the reader a chance to get to know several of its characters and to join…

In this simplistic reworking of Charles Dickens’s legendary tale, Rod Espinosa has switched genders for the main character, with relevant small shifts in her experiences with the three ghosts of past, present, and future. There was, in my opinion, great…

Squish, the amoeba hero of brother and sister team Jennifer and Matthew Holm, is first introduced in Volume 14 of their highly successful Babymouse series. Babymouse, in all her pinkness, is forced to examine the water in the local pond…

In this quasi-autobiographical tale, comic book legend Gilbert Hernandez paints a vibrant and pragmatic view of his memories of suburban family life in California during the 1960s. Firmly affixed in time with popular culture references from television programs, music, and,…

Although this is a sequel to Into the Woods, published in 2012, readers can enter the storyline without previous knowledge of the characters and their relationships to each other and to the prominent Bigfoot reference on the cover. The second…

This book is an absolute must for fans of Bill Willingham’s comic book series Fables. The attractive package has no introductory material; it steps right into alphabetical entries on the major and minor characters in the Fables universe from individual…

Illustrator Isabelle Arsenault recently won the illustrious Canadian Governor’s General Award for her illustrations for the original French publication of this title. Set in Quebec of the mid 1970s, with Fanny Britt’s exceptional text superbly translated into English by Christelle…

In his successful attempt to reach out to a younger reading audience, Stephan Pastis has gathered age-appropriate examples from his successful syndicated comic strip, Pearls Before Swine. The collection is populated with the resident and familiar main characters, each launching…

Prepare yourself for a time travel journey back to a time that never was: the 1867 English countryside and the resident beasts that terrorize (loosely) the communities, bringing excitement and, of course, tourism dollars in return. Well, almost every community.…

Two graphic novel adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson’s legendary tale arrived for me to review simultaneously. The first, published by Campfire Classics, was adapted by C. E. L. Welsh and illustrated by Lalit Kumar Sharma. This is a fairly straightforward…

Dan Johnson has adequately adapted Rudyard Kipling’s original text in his reworking of various stories about Mowgli from The Jungle Book (1894) and The Second Jungle Book (1895). The dialogue and caption entries are sometimes text heavy and archaic for…